First time elk hunting and first time hunting 7W. Our scouting trip in July gave a few potential spots to camp and hunt but we did not see any elk at that time. When we arrived on Wednesday, 10/16, we were happy to see our primary camp location was still open and we quickly setup camp so we could get to scouting. We went out to our primary hunting area that looked promising in July but did not see anything moving and no real fresh sign. Thinking that maybe this area would be more suited to a morning hunt, we headed back to camp for the night. We were excited to hear a few bugles in the early night and went to bed feeling optimistic for the morning.
Thursday morning scouting was very uneventful with no game seen at our primary spot. We decided our afternoon scout would be closer to where we thought the bugles from the night before were coming from. We didn't see any game that afternoon but decided that we would sit this area in the morning hoping to catch something in the field before they headed to bed down in the hills. We set up our blind with good views of a field and tree line. We had some downed trees in front of us and set up plenty of natural background to hide our silhouettes. No bugles were heard that night.
Opening morning we head over to our blind and wait for the sunlight to start to peak over the hills. We were not super optimistic since we hadn't seen any elk and did not hear any activity the night before but to our surprise, at first light, we spotted 2 bulls and 6 cows in the far corner of the field. We watched them for a while but we could not get them any closer and they slowly made their way off into the hills, well out of our range. Feeling better that we at least saw some elk, we went back to glassing the area hoping for another chance. Within a few minutes, we spotted a bull and cow about a half mile away. My buddy let out a few cow calls and they immediately perked up and started looking our way. A few more calls and they both started heading towards us. We continued to call and they continued to advance. The bull was a beautiful 6x6, the cow was good sized and they continued to come towards us and our call. There was a barbed wire fence about 100 yards in front of us and the pair continued to advance. They quickly closed the distance to fence line with the cow in the lead. One last call and the cow jumped over the barbed wire. She was broadside and I squeezed the trigger of my 7mm Rem Mag. The cow gave a quick jump and started to bolt to my right, A quick cycle of the action and the second shot had her down for good. This was all by 0645 opening morning. I was extremely excited but almost sad that it happened so quickly.
We got her field dressed, loaded in the truck and took off for Casey's Processing in Flagstaff where she weighed in at a nice 294lbs dressed and caped. We cut out a backstrap for dinner and headed back to camp happy with our success and looking forward to filling our other tag. That afternoon was uneventful but the next morning was very similar to opening day. We had a group of 4 cows that we were able to call in to approx. 150 yards and my buddy quickly filled his tag. 2 days, 2 cows, mission complete! I'm blessed to have such great hunting buddies, that helped me on this hunt and allowed me to take the first shot.
Here's my girl.
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